Inside the Hook’s Drug Store Museum

Take a virtual tour through this 1890s era drug store museum

The pharmacy cabinets, originally from a pharmacy in Cambridge City, feature reverse-glass painting technique. Several of the advertising art panels above the cabinets are still original, but some had to be restored.

The pharmacy cabinets were built in Cincinnati in the mid 1800’s and shipped to Cambridge City by horse & wagon. Copies of the original bills of lading are on display in the museum.

The back bar at the soda fountain is from Sunman, IN, and the pink Lippincott soda fountain ca.1877 was rescued from use as a planter, restored, and put back into use in the museum.

The cabinets in the store section of the museum are the original cabinets that were installed in the first Hook’s store in 1900. This first Hook’s store, then called the John Hook store, was located in Nashville, IN. They were also displayed in the old State Museum on Alabama Street as part of their Main Street Exhibit, and then moved to their currentl location in the museum in 2004.

The building the museum is currently housed in was never an operating drugstore. At one time it was the Better Babies Building and used to judge infants during the State Fair. The Board of Health was also housed in the building at one time. The classroom section (formerly Bud Hook’s office) and the Red Cross facility were added on in the 1970’s.